Highly skilled & productive workforce

Switzerland achieves high scores in any international ranking for competitiveness, due primarily to its strong added value services, its specialized industries and a motivated workforce. In spite of its small size and population, Switzerland stands out as one of the countries with the greatest number of valid patents per resident, the highest per-capita spending on science, research and education.

Flexibility and high qualification skills of the local workforce point to the excellent teaching levels dispelled in the Lake Geneva Region’s schools and universities such as the University of Geneva, the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (hepia / Hes-so) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

Geneva's workforce is composed of employees who are:

motivated and achieving highest rankings according to IMD (International Institute for Management Development);

hard-working with an average 1,894 hours worked per year;

multilingual with31.7% of Geneva’s population speaking English at work and most people fluent in a second or third language;

qualified with 90% of Geneva’s young population having obtained a secondary school degree.

Companies which decide to locate their business operations in Geneva benefit from the exceptional Swiss regulatory environment. Due to its flexible employment regulations and a remarquably low level of labor conflicts, Switzerland represents an ideal business environment for entrepreneurs.

“Geneva is a very attractive location for senior management. Mobile, cosmopolitan people like Geneva because it offers a community with attractive existing networks that they can slot into, great quality of life, and easy access to the rest of Europe.” Sebastian di Paola, Advisory Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

"Our agency has 37 people, 14 nationalities and nine languages. We didn’t plan it that way; it happened naturally because Geneva is such a multinational melting pot. That’s why it’s often easier for us than for agencies in London, Paris or Berlin to come up with ideas that are powerful enough to transcend language and ethnic boundaries.” Pedro Simko, President, Saatchi & Saatchi Simko